Starseed is a proposed method of launching interstellar nanoprobes at one-third light speed.
The launcher uses a 1,000 km-long small-diameter hollow wire, with electrodes lining the hollow wire, an electrostatic accelerator tube, similar to K. Eric Drexler's ideas.
The launcher would have to be set up in deep space, well away from any planets, to avoid gravitational tide effects bending the tube too much.
The proposed starseed probes would be extremely small (roughly one microgram) nanomachines and nanocomputers.
The required launch energy per probe would be low due to the low mass, and many nanoprobes would be launched in sequence and rendezvous in flight.